Poor Ty!

You know your a good mother, and watching your kids closely when your one year old burns both palms of his hands.  Or should I say you know you have too many kids when something like this happens.  Poor Ty touched our charcoal grill when we were cooking at the park.  It didn't even cross my mind when I set him down to play.  He now gets both hands wrapped daily and we started covering his hand with socks when he eats so we can keep things clean.  

Poor baby!!

Easter

Luke's brother and family came to visit for the Easter weekend.  We enjoyed their tradition of following a string that led to your easter basket.  Easter morning the house was covered in string, and the the kids enjoyed the maze of fun with a fun basket at the end.

Ty was instantly a fan of Easter when he tasted the yummy treats!!

We had a family Easter egg hunt at the park, which the kids enjoyed.  Of course it was windy enough, and we got to fly kites as well.  We had a great picnic party.  It so fun to have family close enough to visit.

Alec at the Easter Egg Hunt!!

Easter Sunday!!  

Can you believe we got a picture with all eyes looking at the camera.  Ya, neither can we.

Ben's Birthday

   Ben had a fun Birthday Party with his friends.  It was a wild, crazy bunch, but they had a really fun time.  Of course Ben is still really into cars, so we had a hot wheel party with a race track cake.  I can't believe he is already five and that he will soon be going to Kindergarten.  He has grown up a lot the past year, and is really a good little boy and a great big brother.
 We were glad when Ben's birthday finally arrived so we could stop counting down everyday.  (We've been counting since 43 days left).  He was truly so excited!!  Just a quick story: the Leapster was purchased on a great morning buster the day after Thanksgiving, since Ben already had planned out what he wanted for Christmas and his Birthday.  I have stored it away not thinking much about it.  When we opened it on Ben's birthday, it didn't work--Yikes.  We had the receipt, but it had been over 90 days.  Walmart no long carries the Leapster, only Leapster 2.  Luckily the manager was available and pretended like she hadn't seen the receipt and made the exchange.  Next time I'll open my purchases and make sure they work before  I store them for months.

Fix It Crew!!

These are my sweet boys all working together.  A true kodak moment!!  It's amazing how fixing things that aren't broken is really fun to do.

Birthday Week

Ty loves presents and enjoyed the wrapping paper more then it's contents.

My baby is officially 1 years old!!  I can hardly believe it.  He is suppose to stay baby just a little bit longer, but we are enjoying every second.  He is such a sweet baby.  He is getting really good at making animal noises, and thanks to Alec he is especially good at dinosaur sounds.  He is walking from person to person, but refuses to make any long distances.  He is my little shadow and is always trying to be where I am, which is good and bad.  He has 

Alec is now the big 3 years old going on 6, or so he thinks.  He is constantly trying to keep up with the older boys, and for the most part does a pretty good job of it.  His big thing this year is dinosaurs and the color green (yes that is suppose to be a green dinosaur cake).  Alec is a smart, energetic little boy that attempts to talk his way out of anything.  He is always keeping me on my toes, and makes things interesting.  We love his fun personality and enjoy being around him.

Christmas!!

We had a fun Christmas this year with Luke's family.  It was so fun to have his parents back from their mission, and to see so many of his family that we haven't seen for awhile.

Here is Ty and 3 of his cousins on Christmas morning--we are missing the other 4 cousins born this past year (8 new grand-babies in 2008).

Here is Ben and Alec with their cousins from Virginia reading Christmas stories with Grandpa before bed on Christmas Eve.

My sweet little shepherds in the Christmas Nativity.  

The wind in Idaho Falls left some fun snow drifts, and Luke helped the boys build a snow cave to play in.  It was nice to have a white Christmas.

HOLIDAY FUN!!

We had a fun month full of holiday fun. Here are a few of the fun things we did this Christmas. Seeing the Christmas Lights was a hit for the kids, even Ty didn't mind the cold. Decorating the tree was especially fun for the older boys, and Ty was our good little helper as you can see. He is getting so big these days and can blow kisses and clap now, which has been a lot of fun. We attempted to make a Gingerbread House this year that failed miserably, but the boys were okay settling for Gingerbread men. We got to see Santa a lot this year, and it was always interesting to hear what Alec wanted since in changed daily. What a fun time a year, and we have been especially grateful this year to be in our own home for the holidays.